My Week In Pictures

A little exciting snippet into my life.... Warning!! The following images may contain scenes of a Christmasy nature....

These pictures are not really in order, especially as these two happened yesterday, but I could not contain my excitement of actually getting to see the Coca Cola truck yesterday in the middle of Liverpool! I didn't even know it did a tour of the UK in the run up to Christmas, and I just pointed at it with my mouth open in shock. It looked so wonderful, and I'm not just saying that because Laura and I got a free small can of coke!

 This looks so much prettier in real life... So Laura and I had a day trip to Liverpool yesterday to do a bit of Christmas shopping. I bought my family the most amazing presents which I can't wait for them to open on Christmas Day! Aaaaah it's so exciting! I did also buy myself a couple of things, but I can never resist! 

These two were indeed two of the things I bought. It's really weird, because me and Laura keep buying the same things, and I didn't even realise she had this eye shadow pallet until I asked her if the colours suit me. This is the first ever eye shadow pallet I have bought as I usually use ones that are given to me as presents. But I couldn't resist these colours. They are so pretty!! I tried the shimmery pink with the darkest tone today and thought it looked fab. And the best thing about Barry M is that it's cruelty free!

I also got this nail varnish from Barry M in Red Wine, which, I'm not gonna lie, looked a lot like blood when I was putting it on. I've wanted a colour like this for a while now; I've got a strong, bright red, but this is a lovely deep scarlet colour.

So I took a selfie of myself during the week. That happened. I'm not good with selfies, but I liked this one.

I made gingerbread biscuits!!!!!!!!! I actually made a gingerbread man for each of my house mates. They said they all liked them, which made me happy. But what they didn't know is just how many of these I ate before they could get to them... Not even sorry.

This happened a little over a week ago, but my history course mates and I went to Patisserie Valerie for cake and coffee, and oh my goodness, it was amazing. I cannot convey to you how delicious this slice of strawberry gateaux was. It was so light, but still so creamy. My friend, Emily, had the chocolate one, but I didn't think I could handle it. I had a mocha with it as I was feeling jazzy... yes, jazzy = mocha time. Honestly one of the nicest places I've been for an afternoon kinda tea thing, and it wasn't even too expensive.

This happened. There are only 6 of us in the house, yet this is how many calendars we have... and since this picture was taken, I think we've got a couple more. Mine is obviously the Doctor Who one, but I also have the one below it.... you will soon seen why.

I absolutely loved this when I bought it... I got it with the BBC Doctor Who magazine, which cost me a few bob, but I definitely thought it was worth it... Until I opened it up on the evening of the 1st December...

...And found this. A toy?!?! What is this?! Where is the chocolate?! No where in the magazine or on the box did it say it was not a chocolate calendar, but contained toys. Usually people would think this was better, but I was looking forward to chocolate!! I felt even worse when reminded how cocky I was being because my advent calendar was so thick, it must contain the best and biggest chocolate of the lot. But no. No... that was not the case. So Jess bought me another, CHOCOLATE advent calender the next day :') But my army of Doctor Who monsters is still slowly growing...

<3

Ice Skating

I didn't even fall over...

So my housemates and I spontaneously decided to go ice skating last night! It was absolutely brilliant. I haven't been ice skating in so long, and I'd forgotten how much fun it is! We found some vouchers to get some money off and we thought 'why not?!' One of my housemates, Chelsea, brought along her two American lacrosse coaches, who were lovely!  
I'm not the one taking the above picture, (I'm the ginger one) but that's my amazing housemate Laura who I've lived with since the start of University. She so pwetty, So are all the others. I live with some of the best, definitely.

I look incredibly silly in this photo... This was one of my many attempts at ice skating backwards. Needless to say, I was rubbish... I can race around forward easy enough, but I can never get the knack of going backwards... If anyone's got any tips, let me know?
At least I didn't fall over, which is something to be proud of! My boyfriend warned me of falling over and another skater coming along... Ouch!! And I was a bit better than Laura who never strayed to far away from the barrier. Bless her the little cutie! To be fair she did get quite good at the end.

In other news, I have so many other blogs I want to post, but I find I can only ever do them when I'm all tucked up in bed, ready to sleep. I recently went to Patisserie Valerie, and I have some amazing pictures I want to share. I also bought a LOT of new clothes (which is bad), so I want to try and do one of the 'haul' things. I also invested in a cheap berry lipstick the other day which is actually one of the best spontaneous buys I have ever done. I have a free day tomorrow, so hopefully I shall get a couple of these done!

<3

Banana and Blueberry

Best EVER muffins!!.... Only if you like bananas and blueberries

I absolutely love baking, it's my favourite hobby, especially when I'm stressed! The other day I made up some banana and blueberry muffins, which turned out nicer than I thought. 

Because I love baking so much, I wanted to use this blog as a way to share my bakes and the recipes I used. I hope they are useful to some of you.

Banana and Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:

• 250g Self Raising Flour
• 1tsp Baking Powder
• 50g Butter
• 80g Caster Sugar
• 2 Large Eggs
• 150ml Milk
• 200g Blueberries
• 2 large Bananas

Recipe:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius (I don't know how to type in the symbol thingy), or gas mark 6.
2. Prep the muffin tin with cases (this recipe should make 12 muffins).
3. Mix the butter and sugar together until it's soft and fluffy - if the butter is hard, blast in the microwave for 20 seconds until manageable.
4. Whisk in the eggs and milk until fully combined.
5. Crush both bananas in a separate bowl until they're all mushy and goopy (yes, you read that right). Then fold them into the mixture.
6. Fold in the flour and baking powder until it's smooth texture.
7. Before adding in the blueberries, covered them in a tablespoon of flour (this will stop them from sinking whilst the muffins bake). Then fold them into the mixture.
8. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases, filling them almost to the top. If you have any left over mixture, feel free to eat it.
9. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 20-25 minute, or until they are golden, have risen well and are firm to touch. Leave to cool for only a few minute, as they are delicious served warm! Then tuck in!!

<3

Winter Is Coming

Winter is nearly upon us.....

I just wanted to share with you an outfit I really liked which I wore the other day. You can't really see my green dress I have on, because the lighting in my bedroom is awful, even though this was at 10am! But it was just a normal, dark green skater dress. 

I think this outfit has reflected the recent weather with it being constantly dark and cold. However, I tried to liven it up with a big wooly scarf (which was extra cosy), otherwise it just looked a bit too dull with a lot of dark tones. Also, it's starting to get colder now, so I reeeeeeally needed a scarf!! I added a little girly cuteness with my hair half up, because it looked a little too edgy with a leather jacket and also leather boots (which you can't see).

I just really liked this look and felt the need to share it. I think I need to do more stuff like this with my hair, because I usually just wear it down and it's getting a bit boring...

And yes, that is a Doctor Who poster in the background. And yes, I was watching Doctor Who on my laptop at the time.... And apologies for the messiness of my bedroom. I promise I've tidied it now!

<3

Brother's 18th Birthday

So my little brother is officially a man...

It doesn't feel that long since I turned 18 myself (it's been 2 1/2 years), but it is just so strange to think my brother is all grown up now. I remember when he was a little diddy baby.

So I went home on Thursday for the weekend for my brother's birthday. It was quiet, we didn't have much of a party, but that's just the way we do things in the family. Besides, I don't think having a massive fuss is really my brother's thing. I think he enjoyed it though and that's the main thing!

He got plenty of presents; most of them consisted of political auto-biographies. Not even joking. It's not what the average 18-year-old boy wants for their birthday, but he honestly loves his politics; he's a star member of his debating club at sixth form and has previously won a competition in London between two teams where he acted as Chancellor, which I think is pretty cool to be honest.

I've posted some picture below, but as you can see none of them actually have my brother in them. I do have pictures of him opening his presents, but he honestly hates photos being taken of him, so I didn't think he's appreciate me posting them online.

This chocolate fountain was A-MAZ-ING. We had marshmallows and strawberries with it and it was just so tasty! My lovely boyfriend bought it me for my birthday back in June, and this was the first time I'd used it for anything. I wanted to save it for a special occasion and this one is the first that came up! Definitely whacking it out at Christmas as well! 

Dude Chill......

<3

Are you feeling Christmasy yet?

So, how Christmasy are you feeling? 

Usually I don't start feeling Christmasy until the beginning of December. If I'm honest, most years I'm an absolute Scrooge until then, hating on all the shops playing Christmas songs and all the people already buying their Christmas presents. When I left my summer job at a supermarket to come back to University in September, they had all ready been stocking panettone and mince pies. In SEPTEMBER. No joke.

However, this year I am already getting into the Christmas spirit. I have been an avid purchaser of Nescafe's Gingerbread Lattes (which actually taste like gingerbread!) along with the occasional mince pie and even some stollen. (Who's stolen my stollen?! ....No? Ok.) But what's even more exciting is my house mates and I have drawn names for Secret Santa! Say whuuuuut?! Yes, you heard me (or read me?), the present hunting will now commence and I shall get my house mate the best present ever!! I shall not mention who or what I get in case said house mates are reading this now. Hi if you are!

Usually present buying is such a chore. But I have a plan this year. I am going to start purchasing gifts incredibly early, just to make sure I know exactly what to get everyone and to be uber-organised. This is going to work. Maybe the early Christmas present buyers I've been hating on the past few years were actually being sensible... I need to write a list. I love a good list.

Another reason why I am feeling Christmasy is the town's Christmas lights are going to be switched on next week! And all the Christmas markets will open with cheese, chocolate and mulled wine. Mmmmmmm. Love it. Lets hope it snows as well this year? Maybe if we all wish hard enough it will happen? I don't think I could go another Christmas without snow.

<3

Maybelline Colour Show Nail Varnish

Lets have a go at this blogging malarkey then...

This is perhaps my favourite nail varnish at the moment. I saw Luanna (le-happy.com) wearing a baby pink varnish ages ago, and just felt the absolute need to have it. So I searched high and low all over Boots for this shade. (It didn't actually take me that long, maybe 5 minutes). I did want a more subtle shade of pink, like white with the tiniest hint, but this was the closest I could find. It's Maybelline's Colour Show varnish in Nebline, which was actually pretty cheap!

I really like the colour; I don't usually like pink stuff, but recently I've started to introduce it to myself. I even dyed my blonde tips baby pink a few weeks ago... but that's a different story. It's very girly, but I think looks quite smart. Not going to lie though, takes a while to dry. The first coat was fine, took a decent 5 mins, but I always find the second coat takes sooooooooooooooo much longer. Like an hour at least!! Whyyyy?? So you can probably see I've actually smudged it quite a bit.

Anyway, has anyone tried any other colours from Colour Show which they like and can recommend me? They have so many nice colours and it's so hard to choose, so if anyone has tried and tested a nice, cool colour, please let me know??

<3